It drives us nuts when we see businesses setting up Facebook Profiles under their business name. If you didn’t already know, you should be aware that it is against Facebook terms to have a Facebook Profile for a business. Why? Facebook Profiles are for people and Fan Pages are for businesses.
Many businesses do this anyway and get away with it, but they still run the risk of being discovered by the FB police. And if Facebook finds out what you’re up to, you can lose your account, and lose the friends you worked so hard to get right along with it.
Fans vs. Friends:
It may seem easier to get friends than fans, mainly because you can request someone to be a friend, but can’t request them to be a fan as effectively. However, it is still more beneficial to operate a Fan Page in the long run.
A fan page can have an unlimited number of fans, but a profile can only have up to 5,000 friends. Businesses that are engaging in social media should not want to limit themselves to a number of 5,000. If you are handling your social media presence strategically, you should be able to easily grow to 5,000+ fans in no time.
One Profile vs. Multiple Fan Pages:
It is also against Facebook’s terms of service for one person to have multiple Facebook profiles, whereas you can administer multiple fan pages and still fall within Facebook guidelines.
This is an especially valuable feature for brands that have many sectors of their business that cater to different demograhpics. For example, Gap, which equally caters to a male and female demographic, and Gap Body, which mainly attracts a female demographic, each have their own Pages.
The two separate pages allow Gap to create specialized content that is specifically targeting their respective demographics, making their campaigns that much more effective.
Do you know other benefits of operating a Fan Page versus a Profile Page for your business on Facebook? Tell us on our Facebook page!